$30 Tier Changes

I've had this tier since the beginning of my Patreon. And it worked very well because of how I've had my Patreon set up. If you were around during the beginning you remember how it worked: 1 half body full color every time you were charged. It worked because charges would go out once every couple months so the rewards were a lot more manageable. However, when going into the current state of my Patreon I was going to delete the $30 tier all together, but some of the patrons that had that tier wanted it to stay so I kept it. However, I didn't think about how it would play out in reality with per-month charging. I don't have the best foresight. So, after a couple of months of doing the whole per-month charge thing I've made the decision to change the rewards for the $30 tier.

I've debated this with myself for the past couple months, and it was a hard conclusion to make. As of right now $30 tier patrons get everything the lower tiers get plus a half body full color request.  When I first made the tier it was manageable due to how frequently (or infrequently) patrons were charged. But ever since switching from per-post to per-month it's now eating up a lot of time. 2-3 days of work for one. And these past month I've had 3-5 of them a month. So on average about 1 1/2- 2 weeks of requests, or in other words, half the month was dedicated to those requests. Then the latter half of the month is me playing catchup and planning ahead for art pieces for this month and the next, working on side projects and Patreon related projects, working on commissions, and before I know it, it's the end of the month and I need to get ready for the new onslaught of Patron Requests. 

Although it sounds simple enough to: get a request > draw the request > color the request. It isn't as easy as that. It's a multi step process that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Gesture, sketching, refining, iterating, line control, color, temperature, shadow, lighting, shape design, costume design, character design, I can ramble on about the things that go into art that most people don't think about. There's a reason why I don't do backgrounds often, that being it takes a lot more time to do than no background at all. And I guess now more than ever I see my art not worth $30. So, that's another reason for the change. But, the main reason is the time spent. I want to work on my doujin projects and other stuff, but being shackled to this endless cycle of requests puts those projects on the back burner, forcing lower tier patrons to wait for a year long project that could've been released in a month or two.

So, what will replace the Patron Request? I've thought about making the Patron Request a headshot color only, or maybe just no color and just lines and some shading. But, I still think that would eat up a big chunk of time. I've also thought of having a personal slot on the polls, but that idea seemed lame. So, again, deleting it entirely seems to be the best option here. Patreon shouldn't be used as a commissioning service anyways (I think it says that in the ToS, somewhere... maybe... idk I could be talking out of my ass) so treating it as such just isn't good. I think I'll keep up with my current philosophy with this Patreon. That being the $8 tier is the end all be all and the higher tiers are for those who want to support me more. So, I'll keep the $30 tier up for the time being, remove the limiter as well and see how that goes. 

These changes will take affect next year. Meaning December is the last month I'll be doing Half Body Full Color Requests. Some people haven't redeemed theirs yet, and I've been keeping track since the start of the Patreon, so you can redeem those whenever you want; even after the $30 tier changes (2023 and onward). It would be wise to mark your calendars for before the end of the year, as to not miss the opportunity to change your pledge if you are a $30 tier user.